Prague, September 2, 2025 – Every four years, for nearly six decades, Prague has been a meeting place for scenographic cultures from around the world. The upcoming online symposium, 60 Years of PQ as a Meeting Place of Scenographic Worlds, aims to explore the phenomenon of the Prague Quadrennial in its historical and current transformations. Up to 40 speakers from 20 countries across the world regions will meet at the event on September 11–12, 2025. The symposium is part of the PQ 60 program.
The program is organized into six thematic panels and four series of flash talks.
Speakers—both academic researchers and active scenographers—will reflect on PQ in the context of establishing and transformations of scenography and performance design as an artistic discipline (i.e., Šárka Havlíčková Kysová, Claudia Suárez Olivares, Lin Wenxuan, Jitka Ciampi Matulová); in terms of curatorship and exhibiting (Martin Bernátek, Andreas Skourtis); or taking into account the local and international political contexts that have shaped national presentations at PQ and the event itself (Rosane Muniz, Věra Velemanová, Marie-Charlott Schube).
The largest group of papers examines scenographic presentations of particular countries and regions at PQ from the 1960s to today (Richard Roberts, Maria Konomi, Amálie Bulandrová, Hartmut Ehrhardt, Hadi Damien, Katiuska Valenzuela Castillo, Evelyn Lima). Other talks show how, in turn, the participation in PQ has been influencing scenographic and theatre practices in many parts of the world (Marina Hadjilouca, Daniela Portillo, Ximena Sanchez de la Cruz).
Further contributions consider PQ as an educational platform (Joana Lavallé); explore approaches to documenting the event and its media representation (Sara Fagundes de Oliveira, Francisco Leocádio, Adam Dudek); and propose PQ’s role in advancing ecologically and socially responsible scenographic practices (Ian Garrett).
In the symposium’s opening reflection—PQ @ 60: Making space for imagination, participation, community—Donatella Barbieri will address these topics in the context of costume design.
“The symposium is not only a look back at PQ’s history. The topics, research, and viewpoints shared by our colleagues from around the world are key inputs while we shape PQ’s future direction,” explains Barbora Příhodová, Artistic Director of the Prague Quadrennial.
Anna Hejmová, PQ Research Coordinator and co-curator of PQ 60, adds: “We will draw on selected studies and insights when preparing the next PQ 60 projects, alongside our own research and archival materials gathered in Czechia and internationally.”
The symposium will be held in English. The program starts at 10:00 am Prague time on both days (CEST, UTC+2). Attendance is free; the watch links will be available at www.pq.cz.
The program was prepared by the PQ’s Artistic Director, Barbora Příhodová, in collaboration with curator, researcher, and author Anna Hejmová, and theatre historian, scholar, translator, and practitioner Pavel Drábek, who also curates the PQ Publication Cultures program for the Prague Quadrennial 2027.
Prague Quadrennial (PQ) is the largest international event in the field of scenography, performance design and space. PQ aims to create opportunities for the presentation of contemporary scenography and performance space, to map and support innovative work in this field and to provide an inclusive space for dialogue between professionals, students and the wider public. The Prague Quadrennial was founded in 1967 in Prague and has been held every four years without interruption. At each of its editions, participants from an expanding number of countries and regions, often exceeding 80, gather in Prague. Today, PQ combines elements of both an exhibition and a live arts festival, and its program typically includes hundreds of exhibitions, installations, performances, workshops, and professional discussions.
11,000 accredited visitors actively participated in the 15th PQ in 2023, and the performance and accompanying program in the public space reached over fifty thousand spectators. In between its editions, PQ functions as a continuous platform that creates opportunities for international exchange in the field of scenography through special projects, artist residencies, symposia, and publications. The 16th edition of the Prague Quadrennial will take place in June 2027.
PQ is initiated by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and organized by the Czech Cultural Institute.
Czech Cultural Institute (NIK)was established on July 1, 2025 through the merger of two existing public contributory organizations: the National Information and Consulting Centre for Culture (NIPOS) and the Arts and Theatre Institute (ATI). Its primary aim is to become a modern, efficient, and open institution with nationwide reach, providing comprehensive support to the cultural infrastructure of the Czech Republic.
NIK provides the Czech and international public with comprehensive services in the field of theatre and partially also in other areas of the arts. It operates as an open center of information, scholarship, consultation, education, and publishing. Moreover, it organizes and participates in international projects, engages in research, documentation work, collecting activities, and organizing exhibitions. NIK encourages a strategic approach to culture, and it supports and connects culture professionals, non-professionals and artists across different disciplines on the national and international scene.
Czech Cultural Institute is a contributory organization of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic.